The present invention relates to a medium suitable for producing wallpaper or a curtain for decorating an inner wall of a building, and in particular to an ink jet printing medium suitable for producing an interior decorating member having a pattern printed by ink jet printing and an unevenness pattern formed by embossing.
An interior decorating member for decorating an inner wall of a building, such as wallpaper or a curtain, usually has a picture pattern and an unevenness pattern.
An ordinary method for forming an unevenness pattern is mechanical embossing. In the mechanical embossing, an embossing roll having a heated unevenness pattern is caused to contact, for example, an expanded resin such as vinyl chloride expanded by heating, so as to form an unevenness pattern.
A method for forming a picture pattern may be any one of various printing such as gravure printing, screen process printing, rotary screen process printing and flexography.
Such an interior decorating member is produced by the combination of the step of forming a picture pattern and the step of forming an unevenness pattern. Recently, picture patterns tend to be printed in more various colors year by year.
Picture patterns of interior decorating members are various. Many costs and much time are required for producing a color separation plate or a printing plate for printing these patterns. Furthermore, many trial manufactures and investigations are necessary for decision of a pattern design before the design is put to practical use. Therefore, it has been intensely desired that costs and time necessary for them are saved.
Under such a background, Jpn. Pat. Appln. Publication No. 10-309764 proposes a sheet for producing wallpaper to which a digital printing technique such as ink jet printing is applied so as to produce wallpaper. This document however teaches only coating of stencil paper for the wallpaper with a known ink receiving layer for ink jet printing.
In ink jet printing, ink classified mainly into aqueous dye ink is generally used. Such ink and an ink receiving layer for receiving the ink have low resistance against heat.
Embossing for forming an unevenness pattern generally requires heating at 180-230xc2x0 C. for a period of time from about 10 seconds to about 2 minutes. For this reason, a medium merely coated with an ink receiving layer for ink jet printing is easily damaged by the heating for embossing. Thus, it is difficult to avoid deterioration in the quality of an interior decorating member that is finally produced.
Experiments on the production of ink jet printing media for embossing by the present inventor demonstrated that the ink receiving layer has a tendency as follows. Upon embossing or foaming accompanied with heating, the ink receiving layer cracks or peels off from a thermoplastic resin layer below it.
An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printing medium suitable for producing an embossed interior decorating member having an ink jet printed pattern and an embossed pattern.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printing medium for an embossed interior decorating member that has resistance against heating necessary for embossing and that comprises an ink receiving layer that does not easily cracks or peels off by the deformation upon the embossing.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printing medium for an embossed interior decorating member that has been produced without the deterioration in the quality by heating necessary for embossing and that comprises an ink receiving layer that does not easily cracks or peels off by the deformation upon the embossing.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printing medium for an embossed interior decorating member that has been produced without the deterioration in the quality by heating necessary for embossing nor cracking or peeling-off of an ink receiving layer by the deformation upon the embossing.
The ink jet printing medium for an embossed interior decorating member of the present invention comprises a base member having a face, a thermoplastic resin layer deposited on the face of the base member, and a non-aqueous and porous ink receiving layer, deposited on the thermoplastic resin layer, for receiving liquid pigment ink. The thermoplastic resin layer is made of a material comprising a thermoplastic resin and a heating foaming agent dispersed in the thermoplastic resin. In an aspect, the thermoplastic resin layer has not yet been foamed. In another aspect, the thermoplastic resin layer has already been foamed. In still another aspect, the thermoplastic resin layer has already been foamed and embossed.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.